Control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives appeared to hang on the results of one race in Cambria County, where a voting system failure caused chaos on Election Day and vote counting stretched into Wednesday afternoon.
While The Associated Press had not declared a winner in eight House races as of noon Wednesday, Democrats focused on three particularly close districts.
Late in the afternoon, House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D-Montgomery) said the party was confident of winning all but one: the race between incumbent Republican Frank Burns (D-Cambria) and his Republican challenger Amy Bradley, who was endorsed by GOP megadonor Jeff Yass.
“The only sticking point is the protection of Frank Burns in Cambria County,” Bradford told the Capital-Star on Wednesday.
Democrats in the other two close races claimed victory Wednesday afternoon, although the Associated Press still had not called the race. Incumbent Republican Brian Munroe (D-Bucks) had a 2.5% lead over Republican Daniel McPhillips. Democrat Sean Dougherty had a nearly 2% lead over Republican Aziz Gill in Northeast Philadelphia, where Democrat Kevin Boyle lost a primary challenge this year among personal matters.
Bradford said Democrats are watching closely as Cambria County officials work to recover from a cascade of election problems on Tuesday.
“It must be admitted that it wasn’t the best. It was far from great. We need to make sure that every voter’s real intentions are recorded,” Bradford said. “The failure of commissioners to provide such a process is not only disheartening, but disturbing.”
Cambria County election results showed Burns leading with 57% of the vote as of Wednesday afternoon, but it was unclear how many ballots remained to be counted.
Cambria County President Commissioner Scott Hunt said at a news conference Tuesday that election officials encountered problems scanning ballots immediately after polls opened at 1 p.m. 7:00.
“At first we thought the problem was software-related. In the morning we learned that the problem was caused by the ballots themselves. They were not printed correctly and therefore the machines were unable to scan them,” Hunt said.
The Board of Elections filed an emergency relief request in the Cambria County Courthouse, asking for permission to keep polling places open delayed due to the outage. Late Tuesday morning, Presiding Judge Linda Rovder Fleming issued an order granting the commission’s request to extend voting hours until Tuesday at 10 p.m. The order stated that any votes cast after 8 p.m. were to be cast by provisional ballot.
Meanwhile, county officials tried to deal with the voting problem. In consultation with the Department of State and county legal counsel, election workers have been instructed to keep unscanned ballots in lockers where they would otherwise be stored after being scanned, general counsel Ronald Repak told the Capital-Star on Wednesday.
But when the boxes filled up, the Board of Elections again consulted the State Department and a lawyer to authorize sheriff’s deputies to collect the ballots and deliver them to the elections office.
A House Democratic staffer speaking on background said supply chain concerns remain during this process.
At least one seat has changed in the Pennsylvania Senate, but Republicans maintain a clear majority
Since the polls closed on Tuesday at 8 p.m., the electoral commission has been working to correctly count all votes. The votes that gave Burns his current lead reflect those from absentee ballots that were unaffected by the scanning issue, Repak said.
Ballots that cannot be scanned, including all ballots cast before about 3 p.m. Tuesday, are copied by hand by election officials under the supervision of representatives from each party, Repak said, adding he was unsure how many ballots belonged to this category. .
Repak did not provide an estimated date for completion of the count.
After the reprinted ballots were delivered to scannable polling places, about 2,000 ballots were cast, and all votes cast during the extended voting hours were from provisional ballots that must be counted in a separate process, Repak said
Repak said the county conducted all required testing before Election Day but did not encounter any problems with ballots or machines until polls opened.
Burns has represented the 72nd Legislative District for 16 years and is seeking re-election to a ninth term. He is an increasingly infrequent rural Democrat in a county where former President Donald Trump won in 2020 by about 37 points.
Bradley, a former broadcast journalist and president of the Cambria Regional Chamber, ran unopposed for the Republican nomination, challenging Burns.
Television advertising data obtained by Capital-Star in September shows that the Commonwealth Leaders Fund, a $45 million political action committee financed primarily by Montgomery County billionaire Yass, spent about $472,000 in a Bradley TV commercial.
Burns’ district is one of eight Democrat-controlled statehouse districts receiving money from the Commonwealth Leadership Fund. McPhillips’ most recent campaign finance report shows the PAC has spent nearly $640,000 in in-kind contributions to his campaign. Bradley’s latest campaign finance report, due Oct. 25, was not available online Wednesday.
Bradford said Wednesday that he is confident that House Democrats have overcome the “red wave” that led to Republican victories in statehouses and the presidency.
“Although there is only one race left to call, it is a credit to the management of the House and our Democratic governor that we have been able to do what no other legislature has been able to do,” Bradford said, noting the House’s success in a Legislature divided on passing “people-focused” legislation such as child care tax credits and increased property taxes and rent reductions for seniors.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
